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A new kind of map: it’s about time

blog.mapbox.com

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Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#181

Post by geon »

stouset wrote: post #161
collinmanderson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be neat if they skewed the map to match travel times.

I don’t think this is a transformation that can be performed by only stretching and deforming the surface (e.g., the maps of a city with time units vs distance units aren’t homomorphic). Imagine starting on the far south end of a congested city surrounded by a circular, relatively low-traffic highway. Points on the northern end of the city would be “closer” on such a map than points directly in the center. You could…

You could resolve it by cutting the circular highway att the furthest point, and let the surrounded are baloon out. The map would still make sense close to the user.

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#182

Post by nnain »

I like that there're companies like Mapbox and CityMapper challenging Google Maps and Apple Maps.

But giving a blank slate to a user and having them input a text query when they open the App might not be the best idea. In my head I remember the places around me using landmarks; the blank screen at the start makes me impatient.

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#183

Post by rrobukef »

xahrepap wrote: post #154

A bit off topic. What I really want in map software (specifically for finding my way): know that I know my way around certain areas. The beginning of my commute no matter where I go is full of turns every minute or two. It makes listening to audio books impossible because interrupted with "in 100 feet..." Constant. Just day "go to $MAJORPOINT" then start giving me step by step directions.

GPS should have an option to be silent until I deviate from the route. Or be silent if I frequently travel this road (for example at least twice this month)

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#184

Post by lkbainbridge »

It’s a really cool visual, but not too practical for points of interest searching on websites with more than a few points, although good if density is low and travel time area is small. Take a look at TravelTime platform that can do 1000s of points in milliseconds - here’s an example using the TravelTime API for the same location and you can drag the marker about and it quickly recalculates points of interest or expand it out up to 90 mins journey time. https://app.traveltimeplatform.com/#/search/0_lng=-122.34929...

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#186

Post by ximeng »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
qznc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Isochrones [0] mentioned in the article include basically all the necessary information. I guess a capable GPU-shader programmer could easily render the distortion in real time. (Hint Hint Hacker News for a cool weekend project) [0] https://www.mapbox.com/bites/00156/#10/51.6840/-0.1480

> (Hint Hint Hacker News for a cool weekend project) I would love an HN/GoFundMe or Patreon mashup, where people could take on cool hacks in a thread that readers are willing to support. I have zero free time at this point in my life, but would be willing to throw some money at folks who do have free time and skills.

If you are serious you could include some contact details in your profile and a statement for the kind of projects you're interested in funding.

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#187

Post by davnicwil »

geon wrote: post #180
nevir wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if some sort of projection would help there: expand areas around the points of interest, and compress space between points.

Perhaps morphing the physical map to match the time would work?

Haven't fully thought it through, but I think such a projection would be unintelligible in most cases - it would probably only look remotely 'intuitive' if travel time would always increase with distance.

For a real city, it would likely just be very weirdly morphed blobs of the map all cut up and smushed back together, with bizarrely curved roads, non-aligning roads & train lines, etc.

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#188

Post by TuringTest »

jdminhbg wrote: post #44
dhritzkiv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that should be accounted for in the time it takes to reach that location, and therefore its place on the map.

Imagine a long river with a bridge at the point you are currently located, but no other bridges. Two places across from the river from each other might each be an hour away, but two hours apart from each other because you have to come back to your current location to cross the river. They'd look nearby on this map because they're in close places and similar times to get to.

That's an interesting and commonly occurring case for this kind of map. I wonder if the visualization would be improved by introducing visual connections between points that are nearby, and/or painting barriers between points that are close in the map but far away in reality.

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#189

Post by Pamar »

chippy wrote: post #97
nerdponx wrote: post #76

By removing literal geography, we now have a map that more closely reflects the way we think about our environment: a cluster of restaurants “five minutes that way” versus “ten minutes the other.” Speak for yourself! I feel way more confident getting around when I know the actual geography.

As a geographer I cringed. The article was written in a way that made it sound a bit more important than it actually is, and I think that quote was one of it. A designer finding geography and cartography for the first time. It IS good stuff though. Maybe the writing is stylised and maybe not as humble as usual techy writing? People do think about space and the environment in spatial terms and also in time. This artic…

One thing I immediately wondered after reading the article was: do you factor "search for parking space" in the time you calculate for driving to a place? (I live in Europe and this is a significant concern in our densely populated urban centers).

Re: A new kind of map: it’s about time

#190

Post by xg15 »

The idea has something, but I'd hesitate to call something that completely changes depending on on when, where and by whom it is viewed a map at all.

This is a nice tool to answer the descision-making question "where can I find a good restaurant to get to in reasonable proximity?" that the article talked about - but I'm worried about the undertones in it that were equating it to an actual map.

I'm not sure if that's their idea but if they are thinking about using this to replace geographical maps, they should stop that thought quickly - there is an awful lot of information that a geographical map gives you that this doesn't.

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